In a major ruling on [August 30, 2012,] a federal court blocked a controversial Texas law that would require voters to show photo identification before casting ballots. The court said the law could curtail the ability of hundreds of thousands of minorities to vote. It cited evidence that showed the law did the most harm to African Americans and Hispanics, who are more likely to live in poverty.

Statement of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which represents the Texas League of Young Voters Education Fund and Black college students at Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern Universities who have intervened in the case:

Ryan Haygood, Director of Political Participation Group at NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said:

On August 30, a federal three-judge panel in Washington, DC denied Texas's ability to implement its proposed photo voter ID law, under the core provision of the Voting Rights Act that LDF successfully defended in the Supreme Court in 2009.

(Washington, D.C.) The week-long trial before a three-judge federal court begins on Monday, August 27th in South Carolina v. United States, a case involving South Carolina’s restrictive photo identification law. The trial begins at 9 a.m. in Courtroom 28A (6th Floor) at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 333 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.